Winners & Losers: Big Ten, Recruiting and More

It's been a big weekend, with Maryland declaring it will go to the Big Ten and an announcement imminent that Rutgers will do the same. And, we're in the middle of a busy fall recruiting season.

The IL staff chimes in with our Winners and Losers of the week.

Winners

Casey Vock (@cvock)

ILGear.com — With another weekend devoid of any lacrosse, I'll give a little shameless self promotion here. When we started ILGear.com, like anything, we were hopeful it would take off. More than a half a year later, we've got well-known companies and players coming to us to get involved in the content. It feels great to see that we're moving in the right direction with ILGear.com. We've put a lot of work into it and we care deeply at the personal level about the sport, and a lot of that is channeled through the newest site in the IL network. The goal is to keep making it better and better and bring our readers the best content possible. All of the people at IL who have worked to make this site a living, breathing creature should be proud.

John Jiloty (@jjiloty)

Penn State, Michigan and Ohio State — The existing Big Ten schools get two more league compatriots that sponsor men’s lacrosse. What that means, we don’t fully know yet. But it can only be a good thing for those three to all of a sudden be one team away from an AQ, and have a big-time traditional power like Maryland in their conference. Don’t count on a Big Ten Tournament just yet, or any other Big Ten schools to just decide to go varsity so they can go after the AQ. The important news here is that instead of being three schools away, the league is just one away from the NCAA’s requisite six. And, as one DI coach pointed out to me today, with yearly payouts from the TV contract, reportedly going up to more than $40 million by 2017, those Big Ten schools that don’t sponsor men’s lacrosse will have more money to work with pretty soon — making it easier to add another varsity sport.

Geoff Shannon (@Geoff_Shannon)

Hofstra — The Pride nabbed three verbal commitments from 2015 recruits this week, including two from California (Maybe its that Peter Dante connection?). As the sophomore recruiting process evolves for the first time, we’re starting to see the next tier of college programs throw their hat into the ring. Some of the historic top NCAA programs have 2015 classes already 11 players deep. Something tells me this next round won’t get that deep for these programs, as they leave room for late-bloomers, JuCos and transfers, which will go into a new, more regular building formula for most programs.

Terry Foy (@TerenceFoy)

Inside Lacrosse — There are very few things that go on at this company more exciting than announcing a new event — for the editorial side of the office, it means we get amazing access to great teams and venues leading up to the matchups, and then on gameday we’re surrounded by lacrosse fans who come out to support the game they love. Well, last week we told you we’re going back out to Mile High for Loyola-Air Force and Denver-Notre Dame, and we’re debuting in Philly at PPL Park with a triple header, including first time appearances from Lehigh, Penn State and Villanova. Thanks to Whitman’s® Sampler® (I’ve grown to love typing the circle-Rs) for making it happen.

Matt Kinnear (@MattKinnear)

The Big Ten Network — This network has been a game-changer in college sports. It is an extreme revenue hog, and it's made the Big Ten an extremely attractive conference for universities because of the cash it provides. The BTN is really one of the main reasons this whole conference shuffling has been happening the past few years. And, it's going to end up being the savior of Maryland's financial woes. Big Ten conference commissioner Jim Delaney is a genius and has left an indelible mark on college athletics.

The Big Ten Network stepped in to broadcast the women's final four when no other network did in 2011. With added men's DI content coming, that's more lacrosse programming that hopefully will be seen.

Losers

Casey Vock (@cvock)

Balancing a personal life with recruiting coverage — I would have loved to have been at Uplax these last couple of weekends to check out some up-and-coming players. But at some point, you have to charge your batteries, and that's what I tried to do all weekend. The urge was there, but I resisted in favor of eating, relaxing, reading and doing laundry. Even when it's said and done and you feel better physically and mentally, it's frustrating to have missed out on action just down the road.

John Jiloty (@jjiloty)

Maryland — I hate to say it but the Maryland men’s lacrosse team does not end up well in this scenario. Right now, ACC Lacrosse is the top of the sport. That’s what kids aspire to. Even more so once Notre Dame and Syracuse join for the 2014 season. Without that ACC connection, I think the Terps lose something in the eyes of recruits. Maintaining those ACC matchups (Duke, Virginia, North Carolina) would be big in holding onto some of that cache, but it obviously remains to be seen where Maryland ends up and what kind of demands will be placed on its schedule. Even if they go independent, I still don’t think this move helps them.

This is a short-term opinion, obviously. Maybe down the line if a Big Ten lacrosse conference forms, recruits will want to be playing in the Big House and the Horseshoe and other big-time venues that transcend lacrosse. Maybe the benefits of being on the Big Ten network will prove fruitful. But at this point, I think it hurts the Terps in the short term.

Geoff Shannon (@Geoff_Shannon)

Old Rivalries — Economics is a funny thing. They force you to make tough decisions, about where you live, how you fund your existence, what you plan to do in the future. The University of Maryland, forced to look at a somewhat bleak economic future, made a financially prudent decision to move to the Big Ten, where football and TV contracts are king. I was once a huge Maryland fan, but overtime and history, thanks in part to attending a faraway out-of-state college, the Terps lost much of their luster for me in my lifetime. But one my most vivid early sporting memories was attending a Maryland-Duke game at Cole Field House in the early 90s, which ended in a tight Terp victory after star forward Joe Smith slapped the ball out of bounds at the end of regulation. It snowed during the game, and the students rushed out into campus and started snowball fights (much less dramatic than burning couches, I admit, but still cool to see for a young guy). Old ACC basketball had been dying a slow death for the last decade, but this is a rough end to that era, regardless.

Terry Foy (@TerenceFoy)

My OLD Phone — Anyone who’s tried to talk to me in the last six months knows that my journey to a new iPhone has been a long and trying one. Well, I’m proud to say the wait is over, and to my Twitter followers, hopefully this will be to your benefit as my battery will no longer fail mid-Tweet, denying you of semi-interesting lacrosse related thoughts.

Matt Kinnear (@MattKinnear)

Those who believe in the innocence of DI athletics — College athletics is big business. Maryland's decision to go to the Big Ten is about money ad financial security, plain and simple. President Wallace Loh said that quite frankly in his news conference Tuesday, and I applaud him for that. As a Maryland alum, I've gone through a range of emotions about this decision, but what's clear is that college athletics has a lot of money at stake. At the end of the day, it's not about historic rivalries or memories of Duke-Maryland at Cole Field House. It's about being able to financially support sports teams (something recent history has proven Maryland could not do) and maximizing revenue. Yes, I'm sad about what potential rivalries are lost, and I'll miss being in the ACC. But in the end, a controversial decision had to be made to save Maryland athletics; let's hope the Big Ten can increase resources and become a positive for the Terps.